USFWS Withdraws Proposal To List North American Wolverine As Threatened Under ESA
Posted on Friday, August 22, 2014 (PST)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week that it is withdrawing a proposal to list the North American wolverine in the contiguous United States as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
The wolverine, a large member of the weasel family found in the Mountain West, has made a steady recovery in the past half century after hunting, trapping and poisoning nearly extirpated the species from the lower 48 states in the early 1900s.
Wolverine populations currently occur within the contiguous United States in the north Cascades Range in Washington and the northern Rockies of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and a small portion of Oregon (Wallowa Range). Populations once existed in the Sierra Nevada of California and the southern Rocky Mountains in the states of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico.
While it is clear that the climate is warming, after carefully considering the best available science, the Service said it has determined that the effects of climate change are not likely to place the wolverine in danger of extinction now or in the foreseeable future.
As a result, the wolverine does not meet the statutory definition of either a “threatened species” or an “endangered species” and does not warrant protection under the ESA.
Service Director Dan Ashe’s decision to withdraw the listing proposal was informed by the consensus recommendation of the agency’s three regional directors for the regions encompassing the wolverine’s known range in the contiguous United States -- the Mountain Prairie, Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest regions.
The three directors made the recommendation based on a synthesis of the entire body of scientific evidence, according to the agency.
On Feb. 4, 2013, the Service proposed to list the wolverine as a threatened species under the ESA. On Dec. 17, 2013, the Service extended the deadline for its final decision by the maximum six-month period allowed under the ESA due to substantial disagreement regarding the sufficiency or accuracy of the available data relevant to the determination. Among the issues disputed was the potential impact of climate change on wolverine populations.
“Climate change is a reality, the consequences of which the Service deals with on a daily basis. While impacts to many species are clear and measurable, for others the consequences of a warming planet are less certain. This is particularly true in the Mountain West, where differences in elevation and topography make fine-scale prediction of climate impacts ambiguous,” said Ashe.
“In this case, based on all the information available, we simply do not know enough about the ecology of the wolverine and when or how it will be affected by a changing climate to conclude at this time that it is likely to be in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future.”
The Service initially proposed to list the wolverine based on climate-change-model forecasts showing overall loss of spring snow across the range of the species. However, upon conducting a more thorough review and gathering additional information, the Service found that climate change models are unable to reliably predict snowfall amounts and snow-cover persistence in wolverine denning locations.
ESA processes, and legal arguments, regarding the animal’s potential listing have been ongoing since the early 1990s.
Conservation groups that have long pressed the USFWS to cement a wolverine ESA listing say the fight will continue.
The USFWS decision announced this week “ignores the best available science, including advice from the Service’s own wildlife experts, conservation groups stated,” according to an Earthjustice press release. “In response to the decision, a coalition of nine groups will file notice of intention to sue the Service for refusal to protect the species under the Endangered Species Act.”
The groups represented by Earthjustice say politics, not sound science, drove the decision.
“The Service in February 2013 proposed to list the wolverine under the Endangered Species Act, but state wildlife officials in the Northern Rockies region opposed the proposed listing,” the press release says.
The groups signing on to the letter are the Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Northwest, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Clearwater, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Idaho Conservation League, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, and Rocky Mountain Wild.
"The Obama administration's short-sighted decision to reject the conclusions of their own scientists and withdraw endangered species protections for these iconic animals is part of a disturbing anti-conservation trend," said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director with the Center for Biological Diversity.
"Blatantly ignoring extensive science showing wolverines are in real trouble in order to bow to political pressure from states is precisely the kind of recipe for extinction that prompted passage of the Endangered Species Act in the first place," Greenwald said.
“The best available science shows climate change will significantly reduce available wolverine habitat over the next century, and imperil the species,” said Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance’s Siva Sundaresan.
“As an agency responsible for protecting our wildlife, FWS should not ignore science and should make their decisions based on facts and data.”
“Places like the Clearwater Basin in Idaho are particularly important for wolverines as they use the area as both a residence and migration route,” said Gary Macfarlane of Friends of the Clearwater. “The Clearwater Basin is also threatened due to the lower elevations of the mountains in this part of the Rockies.”
According to the conservation groups, no more than 300 wolverines remain in the mountains of the western United States. They say the species is at direct risk from climate change because wolverines depend on areas that maintain deep snow through late spring. That is when pregnant females dig their dens into the snowpack to birth and raise their young.
The agency says evidence suggests that wolverine populations grew and expanded in the second half of the last century and may continue to expand into suitable, unoccupied habitat. For example, wolverine sightings outside formerly known habitat occurred in the Sierra Nevada range in California in 2008 and in Colorado in 2012.
And in April 2014, a wolverine was seen in the Uinta Range of Utah -- the first confirmed sighting of the species in that state in some 30 years
Currently, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that wolverine habitat impacts due to the effects of climate change will affect the population in the foreseeable future, according to the federal agency.
“While we concluded that the wolverine does not merit Endangered Species Act protection at this time, this does not end our involvement in wolverine conservation,” said Ashe. “We will continue to work with our state partners as they manage for healthy and secure wolverine populations and monitor their status. If new information emerges that suggests we should take another look at listing, we will not hesitate to do that.”
Simultaneous with the withdrawal of the listing proposal, the Service is withdrawing a proposed special rule under Section 4(d) of the ESA that would have tailored protections to those needed for the conservation of the species, and a proposed nonessential-experimental-population designation for the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.
http://www.cbbulletin.com/431823.aspxIn accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlI bet that was a no brainer, since they discovered wolves were killing wolverine.
